Chapter Sixteen
ACHIEVING THE OBJECTIVES OF RULE 23(b)(3)
CLASS ACTIONS
Admittedly, the dimensions of certain class actions are beyond anything previously seen in Anglo-American courts in terms of size, complexity, and longevity.
Some of these cases obligate federal judges to undertake supervisory tasks requiring enormous expenditures of time and effort, converting their role from
one of passive adjudicator of a dispute staged by opposing counsel to that of
active systems manager. Yet, imaginative judicial management by district
judges willing to control, shape and expedite these can go far toward achieving
the objectives of the class action.
Professor Arthur Miller, writing of class actions in 1979 1
At the heart of the long controversy over damage class actions is this dilemma:
The litigation derives its capacity to do good from the same feature that yields
its capacity to do mischief. That feature, of course, is the opportunity damage
class actions offer lawyers to secure large fees by identifying, litigating, and resolving claims on behalf of large numbers of individuals, many of whom were
not previously aware that they might have a legal claim and most of whom play
little or no role in the litigation process. The central question for public policymaking is how to respond to this dilemma.
To those who believe that the social costs of damage class actions outweigh
their social benefits, it seems as if the best possible response is to abandon entirely the notion of using private collective litigation to obtain monetary damages. We should rely, say these critics, on administrative agencies and public
attorneys general, not private litigation, to enforce regulations. We should rely
on individual litigation to secure financial compensation for individuals’ financial losses, accepting that some losses that were wrongfully imposed by others
will go uncompensated because they are simply too small to be worth the cost
of individual litigation.
But those who believe that the social benefits of damage class actions outweigh
their costs say that this response is unacceptable. They have less faith in the
471
472 Class Action Dilemmas
capacity of regulatory agencies and public attorneys to enforce regulations.
And they argue that some federal and many state consumer protection statutes
were enacted with the understanding that claims brought under the statutes
would be so small that the only practical way for individuals to assert the rights
granted by the statutes would be through collective litigation.
How to respond to the dilemma at the heart of damage class actions is a deeply
political question, implicating fundamental beliefs about the structure of the
political system, the nature of society, and the roles of courts and law in society.
As we discussed in the previous chapter, this political question is unlikely to be
resolved by more empirical research. Without a fundamental realignment of
political interests, it is also unlikely to be resolved soon.
But there is a third possible response to the dilemma posed by damage class actions. This response recognizes the powerful capacity of class actions to do
good and ill. And it recognizes that, at present, there is not a consensus that
the mix of good and ill consequences of damage class actions requires public
policymakers to do away with this form of litigation entirely. Hence, we need to
invest more of the legal system’s energy and resources in regulating damage
class action practices, seeking to improve the balance between public good and
private gain whenever their use is sanctioned. Our examination of recent and
past controversies over damage class actions, review of the scholarly literature
on representative litigation, interviews with attorneys and parties who bring
class actions and defend against them, and case studies of consumer and mass
tort class actions lead us to this third response.
Achieving agreement on how to better regulate damage class actions without
resolving the fundamental disagreement about whether they should be permitted at all, and, if so, in what circumstances, is difficult. Many possible rule
changes would shift the balance in favor of or against using damage class actions in certain substantive domains. Hence, debates about proposed changes
segue seamlessly into debates about the social value of damage class actions,
and opportunities to improve practice may be lost. Moreover, the consequences of changing rules and practices may differ for consumer class actions
involving small individual losses and mass tort class actions. This interplay of
debates and consequences sometimes confuses the discourse about proposed
changes and may impair the ability of those interested in reforming practice to
form coalitions in support of change. All these difficulties are amply reflected in
the record of the Civil Rules Advisory Committee’s hearings and in congressional debate.
Notwithstanding the difficulties, we think much can be gained by seeking a
consensus on improving class action practices, even while the larger political
debate continues. In this final chapter we review the leading proposals for
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 473
damage class action reform that have been put forward in recent years. Although some of these proposals have been put aside for the moment, they illustrate approaches to reforms that have been proposed over the past several
decades and hence are likely to remain on the reform agenda as long as the debate over damage class actions continues. Our goal is to identify those changes
that are most likely to improve the balance between public good and private
gain without either restricting or expanding the use of damage class actions in
particular substantive domains. In so doing, we hope to help those who are on
opposite sides of the broad policy debate about the social value of damage class
actions but who share concerns about current damage class action practices to
find common ground.
We begin by reviewing five class action reform proposals that have been
subjects of sharp political controversy.
A. ADDING A COST-BENEFIT TEST TO THE RULE 23(b)(3)
CERTIFICATION CRITERIA
The focus of the Civil Rules Advisory Committee’s effort to reform Rule 23 in the
1990s was providing clearer guidance to judges on when, and when not, to certify damage class actions. In the committee’s final deliberations, no issue occupied more time than the so-called “just ain’t worth it” rule (proposed Factor
(F)), and no proposed change better reflected the belief of some class action
critics that a prime way to curb perceived abuses in class action practice is to
change the criteria for certification.2
The proposed new provision of Rule 23(b)(3) would have encouraged judges to
deny certification when they believe the possible benefits of class action litigation are not worth the likely costs. The proposal clearly implicated the broad
policy question at the heart of the damage class action controversy because it
called for judges to define the relevant benefits and costs. The “just ain’t worth
it” rule was a primary focus of debate during the period of public comment on
the proposed revisions, arousing strong support from the business community
and strong opposition from consumer public interest advocates and consumer
class action attorneys. It was only after multiple committee discussions, hours
of oral testimony, and hundreds of pages of written commentary that the
committee put aside the proposal to include such a “cost-benefit” test among
the criteria for certification.
The effort to amend Rule 23 to include a cost-benefit test for certification
foundered on disagreement about the social value of class actions, particularly
lawsuits involving small losses to class members. But the committee also
stumbled over the difficulty of crafting language that would provide clear guid-
474 Class Action Dilemmas
ance to trial court judges on how to implement such a test. Our case studies illuminate the problems associated with adding a cost-benefit test to the 23(b)(3)
certification criteria. For it seems to us that, depending on what one believes
are the appropriate benefits to consider—a substantive decision—and depending on what features of the class action claims one focuses on, any one of the
class action lawsuits we studied might or might not pass a “just ain’t worth it”
test.
For example, some readers may think that marketing identical lenses under
different labels at significantly different prices is an example of wrongdoing that
should not go uncorrected. These same readers may believe that consumer
class members who incurred additional charges for lenses as a result of Bausch
& Lomb’s policy deserved reimbursement for those charges, which we estimate
may have totaled $200–$300 per lens user. Other readers may believe that
Bausch & Lomb’s policy, which did not violate any FDA regulation, was well
within the law, and that consumer class members were simply paying different
prices for different products, among which they were free to choose. Still others
may believe that the proper recourse for consumer protection advocates was
the enforcement actions by the state attorneys general that yielded fines against
Bausch & Lomb but did not provide reimbursement to lens users.
Similarly, some readers may believe that the additional premium charges of
about $3 per motorist per year, resulting from Allstate and Farmers’ insurance
companies’ premium-rounding formula, were so small as not to be worth any
amount of litigation costs, much less the millions that were spent on the lawsuit. These readers may also believe that because the companies’ behavior was
consistent with advice from regulators regarding rounding, the social value of
class litigation was negligible. Other readers, however, may point to the possibility of additional charges per consumer amounting to as much as $140 over a
ten-year period and to the insurance commissioner’s post hoc holding that the
companies’ rounding formula violated Texas regulations, and conclude—as did
a host of law professors—that clear benefits accrued from certifying a class and
allowing the litigation to go forward. A third group might believe that consumer
advocates should have relied on administrative processes for regulatory enforcement, rather than on class action litigation.
In sum, once one moves beyond the rhetoric surrounding these class action
lawsuits to a close analysis of their facts, which cases “just ain’t worth it” and
which are becomes a lot less distinguishable. Without adjudication of the legal
merits—not part of the certification decision under current law3— we do not
think it is at all certain that we could depend on judges who have different
social attitudes and beliefs to arrive at the same assessment of the likely costs
and benefits of lawsuits such as these.
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 475
Arguing against a cost-benefit test for certification is not the same as arguing
that all class actions have substantive merit and ought to be decided in favor of
class members. Courts already have procedures for deciding the legal merits of
putative class actions early in a litigation, apart from the certification decision.
Defendants in any civil case may request that the case be dismissed by the
judge when, even if the facts are construed in the most favorable way possible
for the plaintiffs, the defendants should win as a matter of law. Defendants can
also move for summary judgment on the argument that the factual evidence, as
demonstrated by documents, depositions, and so forth is not sufficient to sustain the complaint.
In its study of class actions in four federal district courts, the Federal Judicial
Center (FJC) found that judges ruled on dismissal in more than half of the
cases,4 suggesting that this procedure is widely used in class action lawsuits.
(Defendants also filed motions to dismiss or for summary judgment in five of
the ten class actions that we studied.) Among cases in which judges considered
dismissal, the FJC found rates of dismissal ranging from 15 to 34 percent across
the four courts,5 suggesting that motions to dismiss have real bite in class action
litigation, as in other forms of civil litigation. (Because we deliberately selected
cases for study that survived legal challenges, the fact that none of those cases
was dismissed is not an indicator of the true rate of dismissal in the population
of all class action lawsuits that are filed.)
Asking judges to review the merits of a lawsuit preliminarily when deciding
whether to certify it as a class tempts class action reformers primarily because
of the impact the certification decision itself has on the litigation: Depending
on whether a judge decides yea or nay on certification, the litigation may live or
die. What is sometimes termed the in terrorem effect of the certification decision (literally, its terrorizing effect) seems to many to justify strong efforts at the
inception of the litigation to assure that the decision is a correct one. But the
FJC found that, in three of the four courts it studied, judges generally ruled on
defendants’ motions to dismiss before deciding whether or not to certify.
Asking judges to review the merits of a lawsuit preliminarily when deciding
whether to certify it is also attractive because of the substantial transaction
costs associated with this litigation. Although dismissals may occur early in the
litigation process, normally we would expect a motion for summary judgment
to occur after substantial discovery (with attendant costs) has taken place.
Across the four courts it studied, the FJC found that judges ruled on motions for
summary judgment in 5 to 10 percent of cases with class action allegations. In
three of the four courts, these rulings usually were made after the certification
decision. 6
476 Class Action Dilemmas
Rule 23 currently instructs judges to decide whether to certify a class action
based on the form of the litigation, rather than its substantive merits: its scale,
the extent of common features among claims, the representativeness of the individuals who have come forward to litigate on behalf of the class, and the superiority of class treatment over other forms of litigation. Preserving the line
between certification based on the form of the litigation and dismissal and
summary judgment based on the substantive law and facts seems more likely to
send consistent signals to parties as to what types of cases will be certified than
conflating the two decisions. Moreover, attempting to craft a standard that incorporates substantive judgments about the merits of claims into the certification criteria strikes at the heart of the damage class action controversy.
B. REQUIRING RULE 23(b)(3) CLASS MEMBERS TO OPT IN
Some contemporary damage class action critics have proposed amending Rule
23 to require that those who wish to join a damage class action proactively assert that by opting in. This requirement would be a return to prior practice, because plaintiffs in damage class actions were required to opt in before the 1966
revision to the rule.7 Among the proposed revisions to Rule 23 discussed by the
Advisory Committee in 1996 (but not formally proposed for review and comment) was a provision for opt-in classes, and even after the revision process
foundered, some spokesmen for the business community continued to advocate such a change.
Proponents of opt-in classes reason that many individuals become involved in
damage class actions simply because they do not pay attention to class action
notices or do not take the time to register their desire to opt out. Damage class
action critics suggest that this undercuts the validity of many class actions.
Requiring those who want to be bound by class action outcomes to opt in at the
inception of the lawsuit would inevitably reduce the scale of class actions in
which the underlying individual claims involve modest amounts of money.
Common sense tells us that when little is known about the consequences of
joining a lawsuit, smaller numbers of individuals will come forward than would
appear later in a litigation when more is known about the defendant’s behavior
and when the consequences for individuals are clearer. Social science research
tells us that in many circumstances, when individuals are required to assent actively (rather than passively) to some procedure, fewer will do so although
many of those who do not take action do not disagree with what is proposed.
The social science research on active versus passive assent also suggests that
minority and low-income individuals might be disproportionately affected by
an opt-in requirement, a worrisome possibility. 8
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 477
Requiring class members to opt in is another reform proposal that implicates
the broad policy question at the heart of the damage class action controversy.
In consumer class actions involving small individual losses, requiring class
members to opt in would lead to smaller classes, which would probably obtain
smaller aggregate settlements, which would probably result in smaller fee
awards for class counsel. 9
Reduced financial incentives flowing from smaller class actions would discourage attorneys from bringing suit. 10 How one feels about this result depends on
one’s judgment about the social value of small-dollar consumer class actions.
Hence, proposals to substitute an opt-in provision for the current opt-out provision of Rule 23 lead to sharp political debate, arraying consumer advocates
and class action attorneys on one side of the question and business groups on
the other.11
C. PROHIBITING SETTLEMENT CLASSES
One of the most hotly debated issues pertaining to class action procedure during the 1990s was whether judges should be permitted to certify classes for settlement purposes only. Rule 23 makes no provision for such classes, although it
provides for certification to be conditionally granted and to be withdrawn if a
judge subsequently decides it is inappropriate.12 In practice, however, it appears that certification for settlement purposes only was common in federal
and state courts in the 1990s. In its 1996 study of class actions in four federal
district courts, the FJC found that about 40 percent of all certified lawsuits were
certified conditionally for settlement.13 Among the ten class actions that we
studied, four were certified conditionally for settlement only. Settlement
classes have attracted two types of criticism, the first implicating the broad
social policy question about when damage class actions should be permitted,
and the second focusing on class action practices.
Certifying settlement classes may have the effect of expanding the use of damage class actions if judges certify classes for settlement that they would not
certify for trial purposes—for example, on the notion that settlement itself creates sufficient common interests to outweigh differences in fact or law among
claims. The issue of whether judges can certify cases for settlement when the
criteria for trial class certification are lacking was decided by the U.S. Supreme
Court in Amchem Products, Inc. v. Windsor, a case involving a class action on
behalf of future asbestos plaintiffs. The Court held that neither the fact that the
parties have agreed to a settlement, nor that the judge has approved of such a
settlement, is sufficient to satisfy Rule 23 criteria for certification. But the Court
did not reject the concept of settlement classes when the criteria are satisfied.14
478 Class Action Dilemmas
Prior to the Amchem case, the question of whether damage class actions could
be certified for settlement purposes had been raised in consumer class actions.15 But when the U.S. Supreme Court decided to consider this issue in the
context of an asbestos “futures” class action, the issue of settlement classes became entwined with the issue of certifying a class action limited to or including
claims of individuals who have not yet identified themselves as injured. The
Court’s holding in Amchem and in a subsequent asbestos futures class action,
Ortiz v. Fibreboard Inc.,16 imposed limitations that some practitioners believe
will either severely restrict or eliminate the situations in which a damage class
action can be certified for mass tort claims. But the Court’s restrictive holdings
spoke to the shape of a class—and in particular to the question of conflicts of
interest among class members and between some class members and class
counsel—and not to the question of the legitimacy of settlement classes.
Settlement class actions might increase the use of damage class actions for another reason as well. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1974 that plaintiff
attorneys must bear the costs of notifying class members of the pendency of a
damage class action (so that they can decide whether to opt out),17 some class
action supporters worried that this ruling would deter the filing of suits by
plaintiff attorneys who could not be certain, so early in the litigation, that they
would recover these costs. Initial notice costs can be substantial: In the contact
lens pricing class action, the estimated costs of initial notice were about
$150,000.18 We expected that plaintiff attorneys would have to bear such costs
whenever class actions were certified for trial. But defendants bore these upfront costs in eight of the ten class actions we studied, including class actions
certified for trial and those certified for settlement only.19
The primary criticism of settlement classes is that they facilitate collusion between plaintiff class action attorneys and defendants. This perception fed the
firestorm of controversy that erupted when the Civil Rules Advisory Committee
proposed to add a provision to Rule 23(b) that would explicitly provide for settlement classes.
When the parties are not certain that a judge would certify a class for trial (i.e.,
unconditionally), settlement class critics say, class counsel negotiate from a
weaker position than when they and the defendant know that the alternative to
settlement is trial. Moreover, the critics say, if the parties negotiate a settlement
before a court has made any ruling in the case—as happens in some settlement
class actions—then class counsel are in an even weaker position. (In its study of
class actions, the FJC found that in about half of the cases that were certified for
settlement purposes only, a tentative settlement was presented to the court
along with the initial motion for certification. 20)
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 479
In our interviews, some plaintiff class action attorneys disputed the notion that
uncertainty about certification has unilateral effects on class counsel. In some
cases, they claimed, uncertainty about whether a case will be certified works to
the advantage of class members, rather than to that of defendants. Moreover,
some plaintiff class action attorneys and some defense counsel argued that
even when settlement negotiations precede formal certification, the parties
have often had an opportunity to assess the likelihood of prevailing in a certification battle. In the four settlement class actions that we studied, there was no
significant discovery before the settlement. But two of the four cases followed
years of individual litigation, and a third was one of many similar class action
lawsuits. In these cases, class counsel and defendants probably had considerable information for evaluating the likelihood that either side would prevail in a
certification battle.
Another concern about settlement class practice that we examined in our study
is that when judges are simultaneously presented with a motion for certification
and an already-negotiated settlement, the appropriateness of the settlement
may not receive proper scrutiny. In our early interviews with class action
practitioners, both plaintiff and defense attorneys told us about settlements
reached early in the litigation process before the parties had conducted much
legal research or discovery. They asserted that attorneys in these cases could
not have arrived at a proper evaluation of the factual and legal merits of the
lawsuit before settlement, and that judges who approved these settlements had
insufficient grounds for their approval. Among our ten cases, we found no evidence that settlement quality—evaluated in terms of the ratio of class-member
benefits to lawyer fees—correlated with whether the class had been certified for
settlement only or unconditionally.
A third practice-oriented criticism of settlement class certification is that it diminishes the opportunity for class-member participation and monitoring of the
process. If class members first hear about a case when a settlement has already
been reached, critics say, they have little likelihood of influencing the outcome.21 Currently, this concern is more theoretical than real, since there is little evidence that class members participate in class litigation regardless of its
formal certification status. But tying initial notice of a class action’s pendency
to a settlement’s having been reached precludes the development of strategies
to expand the role of class members in monitoring and shaping settlement negotiations.22
As written, Rule 23(b)(3) requires class members to decide whether to opt out of
a damage class action or bind themselves to its outcome before they have any
knowledge of that outcome. For example, in the New Orleans toxic chemical
factory litigation, which was certified for trial, class members were required to
opt out sixty days after the class was certified—a year and a half before either a
480 Class Action Dilemmas
settlement amount, or a formula for allocating any fund that might be established, was negotiated.23 In ordinary civil litigation, where we presume that
individual plaintiffs (unlike class members) have some control over the litigation process, we do not require plaintiffs to agree at the onset to accept any settlement that the attorneys negotiate. On its face, requiring class members to
decide whether to bind themselves to a class action’s outcome before they
know what it is seems unfair to them. But a rule that allows individuals to opt in
after a settlement has been negotiated might be regarded as unfair to defendants. In settlement class actions, class counsel and the defendant may negotiate a combination of opt-in and opt-out provisions that they perceive to be in
their joint interests.
Our analysis of the controversy over settlement class actions and the evidence
pertaining to their use leaves us uncertain about the wisdom of prohibiting
certification for settlement only in every circumstance. The available qualitative and quantitative evidence suggests that in some instances when judges
certify class actions for settlement purposes, class counsel and defendants have
not fully investigated the legal and factual merits of the case and have negotiated settlements that better serve class counsel and defense interests than those
of class members. When coupled with indifferent judicial management and the
absence of publicity about the circumstances surrounding the litigation, settlement classes offer significant opportunities for collusion and self-dealing.
But we are not persuaded that these opportunities flow from the formal character of certification rather than from the circumstances of a case.
When the individual claims underlying a damage class action are small, when
defendants would rather settle quickly than contest the certification or the
merits, and when class counsel do not have sufficient resources or desire to accept the risks of litigating aggressively, judges need to exercise special care in
scrutinizing settlements and assessing the basis for attorney fee requests. In
such circumstances, settlement class certification may enhance the risk that
class counsel and defendants will negotiate settlements that are not in class
members’ best interests, but certifying a class unconditionally (i.e., for trial) will
not automatically eliminate this risk. In these circumstances, whatever the
form of certification, there is a particularly strong need for judges to open up
the process to objectors and intervenors, to utilize neutral experts, and to require that all transactions be disclosed, as we discuss later in this chapter.
On the other hand, when a lawsuit has been fiercely contested by the defendant, when a significant amount of factual investigation has taken place in this
or prior litigation, and when class counsel have and are willing to spend resources to obtain a fair settlement, settlement class certification may facilitate
settlements that are in the best interests of class members as well as those of
defendants. A judge who is paying careful attention to the class action litigation
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 481
process then might properly decide to certify a class for settlement purposes
only. Of course, such certification does not absolve the judge of responsibility
for assuring that the settlement is reasonable, adequate, and fair, and for properly assessing the value of class counsel’s work to the class, using the full range
of tools that are available.
D. BROADENING FEDERAL COURT JURISDICTION
A fourth proposal for class action reform that has attracted considerable attention from Congress in recent years would broaden federal court jurisdiction
over class actions so that many class actions that are now subject to state class
action rules would be governed by federal rules, practices, and judges. Proposals to expand federal court jurisdiction over class actions reflect views about the
social value of class actions and about strategies for improving practice.
Some critics of class actions believe that federal judges scrutinize class action
allegations more strictly than state judges, and deny certification in situations
where a state judge might grant it improperly.24 Currently, defendants cannot
remove a lawsuit from state to federal court unless all of the class representatives are citizens of states different from all of the defendants—a condition that
is quite easy for class counsel to avoid.25 Moreover, defendants cannot remove
a class action to federal court unless the monetary value of each class member’s
claim satisfies the diversity jurisdiction threshold, currently $75,000. 26 In consumer class actions involving claims for modest losses, this standard cannot be
satisfied unless claims for punitive damages, if any, are considered.
A bill introduced in the 106th Congress would change this situation dramatically. It would permit plaintiffs to file a class action in federal court and defendants to remove a class action from state to federal court whenever a class
includes any member who is a citizen of a state different from any defendant,
the total amount in controversy exceeds the diversity threshold, and the
circumstances that gave rise to the action occurred in more than one state.27
Predictably, the bill evoked opposition from consumer class action advocates
who viewed it as an attempt to limit the use of class actions. Those who opposed the bill questioned the perception that the social costs of state class
actions outweigh their benefits, which they attributed to the bills’ sponsors.
The opponents also raised concerns about the consequences of the proposed
change for our federal system of courts and law.28
Although proposals to expand federal jurisdiction have been embraced by some
who favor doing away with damage class actions entirely,29 the jurisdiction issue has important implications for class action practice in whatever circumstances they are used. For example, some argue that state court judges, who
482 Class Action Dilemmas
historically have had far fewer resources at their command, are ill-equipped to
provide the kind of close attention that class actions require (and which we recommend later in this chapter). These critics say that providing for easier removal of lawsuits to federal court would have salutary effects on class action
practices.
Because there is so little systematic data on state court class actions, we have no
empirical basis for assessing the argument that federal judges generally manage
damage class actions better than state court judges. But the current situation,
in which plaintiff class action attorneys can file multiple competing class actions in a number of different state and federal courts, has other negative consequences. First and most obviously, duplicative litigation drives up the public
and private costs of damage class actions. Second, and perhaps more important, class action attorneys and defendants who negotiate agreements that do
not pass muster with one judge may simply take their lawsuit to another jurisdiction and another judge. Under most circumstances, none of the judges in
the different courts in which the case is filed has the authority to preclude action by another judge as long as all cases are still in progress.30 A class action
settlement approved by a judge in one court usually cannot be overturned by
another court (which might disapprove of the terms of the settlement), even if
the claims settled in the first court are subject to the jurisdiction of the second
court.31
How to stop “end-runs” around judges in our system of state and federal courts
is one of the most difficult dilemmas facing those interested in reforming class
action practice. In the federal courts, duplicative class actions can be assigned
to a single judge by the judicial panel on multidistrict litigation.32 However,
under the MDL statute, transferee judges do not currently have the power to try
all the cases assigned to them, but may only manage them for pretrial purposes.33 Although MDL transferee judges can and do preside over settlements
of aggregate litigation, the fact that MDL judges cannot try cases that were not
originally filed in their court may undercut their ability to regulate their outcomes.
Congress could amend the statute that authorizes multidistricting to give the
panel authority to assign multiple, competing federal class actions to a single
federal judge for all purposes, including trial. 3 4 Some states have developed
procedures for collecting like cases within their states for pretrial purposes,
analogous to the federal multidistricting procedure.35 States could adapt these
mechanisms, or develop new ones, to assign multiple competing class actions
within their state to a single judge for all purposes.
But consolidating cases within federal or individual state courts would not solve
the problem of competing federal and state class actions, which may be filed
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 483
within a single state or in different states by the same or competing groups of
class action practitioners. Since the early 1980s, largely in response to increasing mass tort litigation, numerous bills have been introduced in Congress to
create a basis for federal court jurisdiction over multiple lawsuits arising from a
“mass accident.” 36 Various task forces and individuals have also proposed devices for collecting cases across federal and state courts.37 Some have even
proposed a national mass disaster court.38 Most of these proposals envisaged
consolidating individual lawsuits, but they could extend to damage class actions.
A key problem for federal and state class actions that involve allegations that
multiple state laws were violated by defendants’ practices is how to apply these
laws to the case. In some class actions, defendants have argued and judges
have agreed that because multiple states’ laws are implicated, the lawsuit cannot meet the Rule 23(b)(3) criterion that common issues predominate.39 Some
past proposals for consolidating multistate claims include provisions for dealing with choice-of-law problems.40 But recent proposals to expand federal jurisdiction over damage class actions do not address this issue. Perhaps the ingredients for a consensus approach to the problems of multistate class actions
could be found by incorporating a solution to the choice-of-law problem in a
proposal that expands federal jurisdiction over such litigation and provides additional resources for federal judges who preside over such lawsuits.
E. PROHIBITING MASS TORT CLASS ACTIONS
The 1990s debate over revising Rule 23 began with a concern about how best to
manage mass tort litigation.41 By the end of the decade, the popular debate had
broadened to include securities class actions and consumer class actions, but
the procedural questions raised by mass tort litigation continued to engage the
legal academic community and to shape the policy discourse over class actions.
Yet, when the Civil Rules Advisory Committee’s lengthy review process ended,
little was left of earlier proposals to revise Rule 23 to incorporate mass torts into
its framework. Moreover, recent U.S. Supreme Court opinions dealing with
asbestos futures class actions are likely to restrict the use of class actions in
mass torts.42
Arguments over the costs and benefits of mass tort class actions have been
hampered by the apparent belief of many legal scholars that, absent class certification, mass product defect and mass environmental exposure claims would
proceed as individual lawsuits. Empirical research indicates, to the contrary,
that whenever claims of mass injury exist, litigation either proceeds in aggregate
form or dies on the vine.43 The important public policy question relating to
mass torts is not whether to aggregate litigation, but how and when.
484 Class Action Dilemmas
Rule 23 provides a framework for courts to control the disposition of aggregate
litigation that is currently missing from multidistrict litigation and that does not
exist when cases are informally aggregated. Judges hold fairness hearings and
approve settlements under the provision of Rule 23, but are not required to do
this in the MDL context or in informally aggregated cases. Judges award attorney fees when a settlement creates a common fund, as in a class action or a settlement of multidistrict litigation. But when cases are informally aggregated,
plaintiff attorney fees are governed by private contracts between the attorneys
and their clients, and whatever economies of scale the attorneys may realize in
aggregating cases need not be passed on to their clients.
As we have seen, judges do not always exercise their full authority to scrutinize
proposed class action settlements, and they do not always closely examine the
rationale for class counsel fee requests. However, the formal requirements of
Rule 23 provide a shield against self-dealing on the part of attorneys that is
missing in informally aggregated cases and not as clearly defined in multidistrict litigation.
Class action certification often puts class action attorneys in control of mass
tort litigation, and these attorneys often adopt a strategy of settling the largest
possible number of claims early in the litigation process according to a formula
that only roughly distinguishes among claimants with injuries of differing
severity. 44 But, in mass tort litigation, significant numbers of claimants often
would be better served by lengthier litigation (to develop a stronger factual basis for negotiation) and more individualized damage assessment. Plaintiff attorneys who aggregate mass tort cases informally argue that they are better able
than the class action attorneys to achieve these ends. Although conducted in
the lofty terminology of due process, the public debate over mass tort class actions actually reflects a power struggle between these two groups of attorneys.
To date, there is insufficient empirical evidence to indicate whether mass tort
claimants are better served by formal aggregation through class certification, by
informal aggregation, or by the somewhat ambiguous middle-ground that MDL
provides.
Mass tort class actions present yet another dilemma for private and public decisionmakers: Classwide resolution of large-scale litigation offers an opportunity for courts and parties to stem the flow of resources required to litigate cases
individually or in small groups. But the potential for large-scale resolution
stimulates claiming by large numbers of individuals who might not otherwise
have come forward. The expansion of the claimant population not only drives
the cost of global resolution skyward, it also dilutes the value of claims that are
arguably more deserving of compensation.
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 485
To defendants in mass product defect and mass exposure cases, class certification is a double-edged sword. When aggregate litigation is inevitable, class
certification and settlement may offer a vehicle for controlling costs. But few
companies—and few corporate counsel—are comfortable accepting the “bet
the company” risk associated with a single classwide trial. Moreover, early
certification of a mass tort class may short-circuit the process of testing the
strength of the plaintiffs’ factual and legal case, and testing the plaintiffs’
attorneys’ willingness to invest the necessary resources to litigate successfully.
Informal aggregative procedures provide more avenues to test plaintiff
attorneys’ resolve and more ability to craft different settlements for different
groups of claimants and their attorneys.
Class certification of mass torts after the facts and law underlying the litigation
have been fully developed might best balance the competing interests of mass
tort claimants and defendants, by providing both court scrutiny of settlement
and fees and an efficient means of resolving large-scale litigation once the merits of the plaintiffs’ case have been demonstrated. The proposal to add a
“maturity” factor to the criteria for class certification45 was based, in part, on
this intuition. But once informal aggregation of cases proves successful for
them, individual plaintiff attorneys are unlikely to find any classwide resolution
attractive because it would stem the flow of fees from individually negotiated
contingency-fee agreements. Finding that elusive moment when global settlement is in both sides’ interest may be nigh impossible. But before we can find
that moment—or any other solution to the problems of mass tort litigation—we
need to abandon the myth that mass tort cases, absent class certification, proceed as individual lawsuits, with a full panoply of due process.
***
Our review of the leading class action reform proposals is sobering. History
suggests that some of these proposals are unlikely to garner sufficient support
for adoption because they involve the political disagreement at the heart of the
class action controversy. And the likelihood that other proposals will improve
class action practice is uncertain at best. What avenues for reform remain?
We think it is judges who hold the key to improving the balance of good and ill
consequences of damage class actions. It is what the judge requires of the attorneys, parties, and process that determines the outcome of a damage class
action. And it is the outcome of one class action that determines whether another similar class action will be brought. If judges approve settlements that are
not in class members’ interest and then reward class counsel for obtaining such
settlements, they sow the seeds for frivolous litigation—settlements that waste
486 Class Action Dilemmas
society’s resources—and ultimately disrespect for the legal system. If more
judges in more circumstances dismiss cases that have no legal merits, refuse to
approve settlements whose benefits are illusory, and award fees to class counsel
proportionate to what they actually accomplish, over the long run the balance
between public good and private gain will improve. In the final section of this
chapter we discuss how this might be accomplished.
F. INCREASING JUDICIAL REGULATION OF DAMAGE
CLASS ACTIONS
Judicial regulation of damage class actions has two key components: settlement
approval and fee awards. Judges need to take more responsibility for the quality of settlements. And they need to reward class counsel only for achieving
outcomes that are worthwhile to class members and society. For assistance in
these tasks they can sometimes turn to objectors and intervenors. But because
intervenors and objectors often are also a part of the triangle of interests46 that
impedes regulation of damage class actions, judges should also turn for help to
neutral experts and to class members themselves.
1. Settlement Approval
Rule 23(e) requires judges to approve settlements of class actions, but does not
specify the criteria that judges should use in deciding whether to grant such approval. Case law requires that class action settlements be fair, adequate, and
reasonable47—elastic concepts that do not, on their face, offer much guidance
as to which settlement elements judges should approve, and which they should
reject.48 The federal judges’ reference manual on complex litigation offers
more guidance, suggesting that judges should question settlements that appear
to offer unduly preferential treatment of class representatives or particular subgroups of class members, or excessive compensation for attorneys, or that involve monetary amounts that are much less than the amounts sought initially
by plaintiffs’ attorneys or are indicated by preliminary discovery.49 The manual
also suggests that judges question settlements to which there are many objectors or to which apparently cogent objections have been raised.50
Neither case law nor the judicial reference manual offers much help to judges in
determining what the settlement is actually worth, and hence how adequate,
reasonable, or fair it really is. Outcomes of damage class actions are often intended both to compensate class members’ losses and to deter the defendant
and others from engaging in illegal practices. In the ten class actions we studied, the information presented to judges for the purpose of determining
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 487
whether settlements fairly, adequately, and reasonably met these objectives was
very uneven.
According to case law, judges may only approve or reject proposed class action
settlements; they may not themselves devise a settlement that is to their liking.51 In practice, however, judges may signal what features of settlements will
and will not meet their approval, as Judge Robert Jones did in a series of meetings with counsel in the home siding class action.52
To give meaning to the objectives of damage class actions, before approving a
settlement, a judge ought to inquire what the estimated losses were and how
these losses were calculated. In some instances, such information might be
more readily provided in the form of aggregates, as in the brokerage products
case, where class counsel retained experts who calculated aggregate losses to
class members under two different theories of loss estimation, and compared
the total negotiated settlement amount to these aggregate loss estimates.53 In
other instances, it may be more practical to estimate losses to individual class
members, as in the cable TV late fee case, in which the alleged loss was the
monthly late fee, and the settlement offered reimbursement of up to ten latefee charges.54 In some instances, providing loss estimates in support of settlement requires fairly significant factual investigation (i.e., discovery), and may
lead to disputes over the proper method of loss estimation, as occurred in the
brokerage products litigation.55 But approving a settlement without any information on aggregate or individual losses, which seems to have happened in the
collateral protection insurance case,56 raises serious questions about how the
judge determined the settlement’s adequacy, reasonableness, and fairness.
The issue is not that class members should always be fully compensated for
their losses. Because the legal merits of the lawsuits have not been adjudicated,
judges quite properly expect settlements to reflect compromises between the
parties that take into account the strengths and weaknesses of the class members’ case. However, judges should be suspicious of settlements that fall far
short of reasonably estimated losses, and of plaintiff class action attorneys
whose advocacy is directed toward persuading the judge of the weaknesses of
the very case that they were eager to have that same judge certify not many
months before.57
The judge’s assessment of the adequacy and reasonableness of a class action
settlement should not rest merely on the amount of money it is putatively
worth. If few class members come forward to claim compensation, then the
settlement is, in reality, worth much less than it appears. Case law on attorney
fees (which we discuss further below) does not require judges to distinguish between the total potential liability of defendants and their actual payments to
488 Class Action Dilemmas
settle a class action.58 We think that ignoring this important distinction encourages collusion between plaintiff attorneys and defendants.
Judges ought to require settling parties to lay out their plans for disbursement,
including proposed notices to class members, information dissemination plans,
whether payments will be automatic (e.g., credited against consumers’ accounts) or class members will be required to apply for payment, and, in the latter instance, what class members will be required to do and to show in their
applications. Generally, in consumer class actions involving small individual
losses, automatic payments to class members should be favored when lists of
eligible claimants (e.g., subscribers) are available from defendants and when a
formula can be devised for calculating payments. Among the consumer class
actions we studied, settlement funds were more likely to be fully disbursed to
class members when payments were automatic—for example, when defendants
credited the accounts of current policy holders in the insurance premium double rounding litigation 59 —rather than requiring class members to file a claim
against the fund.
Settlement plans presented to the judge should always indicate what will be
done with any funds that are not claimed by class members. If the settlement
includes a provision to return any residual funds to the defendant, the parties
should disclose their estimates of the projected total disbursement by defendants. In cases in which unclaimed funds revert to defendants, the actual size
of the settlement may be very different from the amount negotiated. For example, because less than 1 percent of past policy holders filed claims against
the settlement fund in the insurance premium double rounding class action, the
true value of the settlement turned out to be about $24 million, rather than the
$39.6 million negotiated by the parties and approved by the judge.60
Coupon settlements, in which class members receive coupons for free or discounted products and services—often the same products or services whose alleged flaws led to the litigation—have been the subject of sharp controversy.61
Coupons can be an efficient way of delivering compensation to class members
when defendants do not have available lists of eligible claimants—as when the
class comprises all purchasers of a common product, such as orange juice—or a
ready means of making direct cash payments to class members. But coupons
that are not redeemed impose no real cost on the defendant, and a settlement
composed wholly or largely of such coupons is not worth its face value. For example, half of the negotiated settlement amount in the contact lens pricing case
was to be paid in the form of coupons. Was the true value of that settlement the
$67 million amount negotiated, or the $34 million promised in cash payments?
Or was it the smaller but unknown amount of cash paid and coupons redeemed
by lens users who came forward to claim compensation?62
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 489
Judges who are reviewing coupon settlements ought to ask defendants for estimates of the rate of coupon redemption and projected payouts. Since many defendants use coupons as marketing devices, such information ought to be
available to them and would, at least, provide some guidance to judges as to the
probable monetary value of a coupon settlement. When direct cash payments
to class members are feasible, a judge ought to assume that coupons are proposed in lieu of cash payments because they will cost the defendant less than to
pay cash, and therefore the judge ought to closely scrutinize the parties’ claims
about the monetary value of the settlement and the appropriateness of using
coupons at all.
Currently, many damage class actions are justified by their presumed regulatory enforcement effects. Particularly when individual payments to class members are small, so that the claim of a compensation objective being met is weak,
judges should take regulatory enforcement effects into account in assessing the
quality of the settlement. Judges should ask whether the class litigation contributed to changes in defendants’ practices or in government regulations. But
judges need to be wary of unsubstantiated claims that such changes occurred,
and should be skeptical when large dollar values are assigned to alleged injunctive effects. For example, the parties initially assigned a value of $11.7 million to
the “injunction” component of the settlement in the collateral protection insurance lawsuit63 even though the evidence suggests that the defendants’ practices
contested in that lawsuit had ceased some time before, either in response to
previous class actions or simply as a result of a change in corporate policy. In
inquiring about changes in practice, judges should also ask whether the instant
class action is the first such suit against the defendant, or is one in a long chain
of such suits, because later suits are less valuable as regulatory enforcement
tools.
Judges’ responsibility for the fairness, adequacy, and reasonableness of class
action settlements should not end with their formal approval of those
settlements. In two of the ten class actions we studied, no public record exists
of the amounts of money ultimately paid out by defendants.64 Judges should
require that settlement administrators (including defendants, organizations
retained by defendants to administer the settlement, and individuals or
organizations acting on behalf of the court) report, in a timely fashion, both the
total amounts of disbursements to class members and the total costs of
administration. Judges should review these reports to determine whether rates
of claiming and coupon redemption are in line with parties’ projections at the
time the settlement was proposed; they also, as we discuss below, should adjust
class counsel fees when the true value of the settlement falls substantially below
the value asserted during the settlement approval process.65
490 Class Action Dilemmas
When settlements are structured to provide payments over lengthy periods,
judges should require, at least, annual reports of disbursements and costs as
well as reports on the process of claims administration—including the numbers
of claims accepted and denied, reasons for denial, use and outcome of appellate procedures (where provided) and time to disposition. When settlements
provide for cy pres remedies, the beneficiaries of those remedies and the
amount of disbursement to them should also be reported. When alternative
dispute resolution procedures, such as arbitration or mediation, are utilized in
the claims administration process, judges should require reporting on the selection and training of the arbitrators or mediators, payment provisions, and
quality control procedures. These regular reports on claims administration
should be available to the public for review.
2. Attorney Fees
The private gains that accrue to plaintiff class counsel in damage class action
litigation are the engine that drives the litigation. The single most important action that judges can take to support the public goals of class action litigation is to
reward class action attorneys only for lawsuits that actually accomplish something of value to class members and society.
Currently, judges award fees to plaintiff class action attorneys using either the
percentage of fund (POF) approach (a judge-determined percentage of the
common fund) or the lodestar approach (reported hours multiplied by a judgedetermined hourly rate multiplied by a judge-determined factor reflecting
lawyers’ skill, success, or the risk they incurred in litigating). The POF approach
has been criticized as rewarding class action attorneys without regard for how
much effort they actually invested in obtaining a particular monetary award or
settlement—for example, when defendants agree to pay a large amount to settle
the lawsuit early in the litigation to contain their own costs and avoid publicity.
The lodestar approach has been criticized for its potential to overpay attorneys
who invest unnecessary time in the litigation (or pad their bills), and for requiring excessive attention from judges to attorneys’ billing practices to avoid such
overpayment.66 In practice, neither approach may achieve the proper social
objective, which is to reward class action attorneys for bringing litigation that
delivers value for class members and society.
In theory, the POF approach ought to result in the right level of reward for class
action attorneys, because we should be able to rely on defendants to ensure
that class action attorneys work hard to achieve substantial monetary rewards
for class members. But in class action litigation, defendants may have an interest in plaintiff attorneys’ receiving significant rewards for substandard settle-
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 491
ments: Such settlements leave defendants, on net, better off than they might
have been had the class action attorney worked harder (or more skillfully),
thereby forcing the defendant either to try the case to verdict or settle for a
larger amount. If judges do not strictly scrutinize the quality of settlements,
plaintiff attorneys may get paid too much for what they accomplish and defendants may pay too little for closing off future litigation.
We do not think the solution to this problem is to rely on the lodestar approach.
Rather, we think judges ought to calibrate POF awards more carefully to reflect
the benefits actually produced by the class litigation. To avoid rewarding class
action attorneys for dubious accomplishments, judges should award fees in the
form of a percentage of the fund actually disbursed to class members or other
beneficiaries of the litigation.67 When settlements include coupons, judges
should award fees based on the monetary value of coupons redeemed, not
coupons offered.
In an important case decided in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court held that class
action attorney fees could be awarded on the basis of the negotiated size of a
settlement fund, without regard to how many class members came forward to
claim shares of the fund.68 We think this rule has perverse effects in damage
class actions and ought to be overturned. When defendants keep any dollars
not collected by class members, the rule gives class action attorneys and defendants an incentive to collude in negotiating settlements whose actual monetary
value is less than their face value.
Awarding fees on the basis of dollars paid out, rather than dollars that might be
paid out, poses a practical problem: Plaintiff class action attorneys have a legitimate concern about collecting their fees as soon after the close of litigation as
possible, since they have to pay salaries and expenses as they accrue and have
often accumulated a large financial burden by the time the lawsuit is settled.
Judges may, however, award a portion of the projected fee immediately and
award the remainder, as a percentage of disbursements, over time. For settlements with long disbursement tails, such as the polybutylene pipes litigation,
judges can use annual reports of disbursements as a basis for making sound
projections of ultimate disbursements and pay the remainder of attorney fees
over time based on those data. An added benefit of linking class action attorney
fees to disbursements is that it would give the attorneys an interest in ensuring
expeditious and effective delivery of compensation to class members. In the
home siding litigation, Judge Jones decided that the class counsel fees would be
paid out over the first four years of the claims administration process.69 Judges
have held back portions of attorney fees in other cases, where disbursements
were to be made over a long period of time or where there was uncertainty
about what the total payout would be.70
492 Class Action Dilemmas
Class counsel expenses could be paid out as soon as the judge has assessed
these expenses, before disbursements have been completed. As is common today in other areas of legal practice, class action attorneys ought to be required
to provide detailed expense reports.
In awarding fees, judges ought to award attorneys a lower percentage of any
dollars that are not collected by class members, but instead are awarded to
other beneficiaries—so called cy pres remedies—except in instances where direct compensation to class members is clearly impracticable. Some damage
class action proponents argue that when class counsel succeed in negotiating a
settlement that requires defendants to pay a substantial amount to resolve the
lawsuit, they have served a regulatory enforcement purpose that merits a fee
award. From the perspective of economic theory, it does not matter who collects the defendant’s money. As a social matter, however, having the defendant
pay shareholder funds to attorney- or judge-selected charitable organizations
whose mission may have little to do with the defendants’ alleged wrongdoing is
hard to justify. 71 For example, class counsel in the cable TV late fee litigation
proposed awarding $250,000 to the California State University in Sacramento
(where the representative plaintiff was a member of the faculty), $25,000 to a local TV station, and $12,000 to the “Legal Community Against Violence,” among
others.72 Moreover, when plaintiff class action attorneys know that they will receive fees as a result of a settlement, without regard to whether class members
come forward to claim disbursement or payments are made to other organizations, they have less interest in designing and administering effective
disbursement processes.
To assure that they themselves do not have an improper interest in the settlement of a class action, judges should refrain from making cy pres awards to organizations with which they have some personal connection—for example, the
law school from which they graduated or an organization on whose board they
serve.
As long as the use of damage class actions for regulatory enforcement is sanctioned, judges should be prepared to award fees, as well, for changes in defendants’ practices and other regulatory consequences. But judges should not
readily make awards for practices that were changed in the past in response to
enforcement actions by public attorneys general or other public officials, individual litigation, or previous class actions. Conversely, judges should consider
the public regulatory consequences of the class action litigation that is before
them: statutory or rule changes and public enforcement actions undertaken as
a result of the class action.
All of the issues considered so far pertain to the calculation of the amount that
class counsel should receive in fees. Another question is when that amount
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 493
should be decided, and by whom. In practice, when class counsel submit attorney fee requests to a judge, the amount of fees often has been negotiated
with the defendant simultaneously with negotiating other aspects of the settlement agreement. Class counsel and the defendant may agree to a specific
amount—as in the credit life insurance class action, where the settlement
agreement submitted for judicial approval specified the fee but not the size of
the compensation fund 73—or a defendant may agree not to object to a fee request, up to some specified amount.74 In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld
the right of parties to include a fee stipulation in settlement agreements,
seemingly paving the way for plaintiffs’ attorneys and defendants to include
understandings about fees in settlement agreements. A judge who does not approve of such a fee understanding, the Court held, can refuse to approve the
entire settlement agreement under Rule 23(e).75
The impetus for defendants to know the maximum amount of fees that they
might have to pay class counsel before agreeing to other terms of a settlement is
clear: They need to know what the bottom line of any proposed agreement will
be. But because of the conflict of interests posed for class counsel, such fee
agreements deserve close scrutiny.76 In cases where the potential for selfdealing and collusion is high—consumer class actions involving small losses to
individuals; actions where defendants have chosen not to contest certification
or the legal merits; where class counsel do not appear to have either the resources or the will required to appropriately investigate the facts; and where the
case has received little or no attention from intervenors or objectors, government regulators, or the press—we think judges ought to consider alternative
approaches. For example, in a report issued more than a decade ago, the Third
Circuit Task Force on Attorney Fees recommended that judges negotiate a percentage fee arrangement with class counsel at the outset of the case or “as early
as practicable.” In complex cases, the Task Force recommended that the judge
appoint an attorney to negotiate the fee arrangement on behalf of the class; that
attorney would then submit a fee recommendation to the judge.77 More
recently, the National Association of Consumer Advocates recommended that
class counsel and defendant negotiate the total amount to be paid by the
defendant, without discussing fees; the judge would then award fees as a share
of this amount.78
3. Sources of Assistance
One reason some judges may not currently engage in close examination of settlement quality and fee requests is that they do not have information or expertise available to assist them. Judges could enhance their capacity to evaluate
settlements and fee requests by inviting others to assist them. A key question
494 Class Action Dilemmas
for judges is how to identify and obtain advice from knowledgeable but disinterested parties.
Intervenors and objectors are sources of assistance to judges. But intervenors
and objectors require timely information about a proposed settlement and access to case information. When there is little time provided between notice of
settlement and the date for filing a motion for leave to intervene, or between
notice and a fairness hearing, intervenors and objectors are hard-pressed to effectively assist a judge in investigating the background of the settlement and its
provisions.
Judges need to ensure that the opportunity for interested parties to come forward to identify and argue what they perceive as demerits of a proposed settlement is a real one. This opportunity is particularly important when the individual claims underlying a damage class action are small, when defendants have
settled quickly without contesting the certification or the merits, and when
class counsel do not appear to have sufficient resources or desire to accept the
risks of litigating aggressively. 79
The value of intervenors was sharply demonstrated in the collateral protection
insurance class action. In that case, class counsel and the defendants initially
proposed a settlement in which class counsel would receive 80 percent of the
common fund, class members would submit forms to collect modest shares of
the remaining 20 percent, and defendants would receive any portion that was
not claimed by class members; also, one of the three subclasses that were defined under the agreement was to be certified as a non-opt-out class. After Trial
Lawyers for Public Justice entered as intervenors, the settlement was revised so
that the entire class was certified on an opt-out basis, payments were made automatically to class members with any residual left in the fund to be paid
to charitable organizations, and attorney fees were reduced to not more than
20 percent of the common fund—about $3.5 million less than their original
share.80
Intervenors and objectors, however, are not disinterested parties. Judges need
to be wary of lawyers who claim to represent a particular set of parties, but
whose real motivation is to negotiate a fee with defendants and plaintiff class
action attorneys at the price of disappearing from the scene. To help guard
against collusion among class counsel, defendants, intervenors, and objectors,
payments made by one set of lawyers to another or by defendants to intervening or objecting lawyers ought to be disclosed to the judge,81 and arguably to
class members as well.
Public interest lawyers may be a source of more impartial advice to judges. As
advocates for groups that have their own policy agendas, these lawyers are not
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 495
wholly disinterested, either. But public interest organizations like Public Citizen have played an important role in recent years in calling attention to questionable class action practices, even while they advocate the continued use of
damage class actions in a wide range of circumstances. Public interest lawyers
are perennially strapped for resources, and unless they have a chance to recover
their expenses for intervening, they can come forward in only a relatively small
number of cases. Hence, we think judges ought to award fees to intervenors
representing nonprofit organizations who significantly improve the quality of a
settlement. These payments should also be a matter of public record.82
The need for vigilance when dealing with intervenors should not be an excuse
for judges to exclude outsiders from the process. Nor should judges automatically reject the notion of paying public interest intervenors out of a concern
about increasing transaction costs: With so much money at stake, in payments
to beneficiaries and class counsel fees and expenses, properly assessed intervenors’ fees are a small price to pay for assisting the judge in assessing the value
of a settlement. When a judge determines that intervenors merit fees because
their efforts have contributed to a significant improvement in the quality of a
settlement, their fees should be split evenly between the defendant and class
counsel (from the latter’s already-decided share of the settlement).
Judges should also seek assistance in evaluating the quality of settlements from
neutral experts. Experts can provide independent analyses of loss estimation,
assess the reasonableness of disbursement plans, and project the probable
value of the settlement to class members and other beneficiaries. However,
judges need to be wary of experts obtained by plaintiff class action attorneys or
defendants who may have a financial interest in securing the judge’s approval
of a settlement. Under Rule 706 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, federal judges
have the authority to appoint their own neutral experts. Judges should appoint
neutral experts to assist them in assessing claims of regulatory enforcement to
assure that such claims are real. When nonmonetary benefits are included in a
settlement, judges should appoint neutral experts to assess the value of these
benefits before making their fee award. Judges also should appoint neutral accountants to audit attorney expense reports before making a final award of expenses. These additional costs should be divided between the defendant and
class counsel, as described above.
Currently, federal judges are advised to limit post-settlement discovery,
particularly when a settlement occurs early in the litigation, to avoid increasing
attorney fees and expenses.83 But these settlements are often the most
questionable in terms of benefits achieved for class members. Avoiding expert
fees seems a foolish economy when millions of dollars will be spent by
defendants to settle the litigation. Because settling parties share an interest in
convincing the judge of the reasonableness of the settlement, judges have
496 Class Action Dilemmas
particular reason to use their authority to appoint their own experts in class
action litigation.
Many judges presently ignore a potentially large group of helpers: the class
members themselves. Typically, class members are brought into the litigation
late in the process, when the deal has already been done. They may not be told
the details of the proposed settlement, or may be told the details in some fashion that is intelligible only to lawyers. However much they are told, class members are always told that they should not approach the court directly for information. They are told that they may object to a settlement, but sometimes they
are not told much about how to go about doing that, and often what they are
expected to do—e.g., appear in some place miles away or secure a lawyer to appear on their behalf—is infeasible. Whatever the notices say, the real message
to class members is “stay away.”
It is time for courts to rethink the role of class members in damage class actions,
and to bring methods of communication with class members into the twentieth, if not the twenty-first, century.84 Defendants who routinely hire marketing
experts to develop media campaigns and write advertising copy, and plaintiff
class action attorneys who have begun to do the same, know how to secure assistance to write notices to class members that can be understood by most citizens. Judges ought to require that the parties secure the assistance of communication experts in planning and implementing notice campaigns, and that all
notices are written in plain English rather than lawyerese.
In notices of the pendency of class actions, potential class members should be
told what the class action is all about: what defendants are alleged to have done,
to whom, and with what effects. In notices of settlement, class members should
be told, in some detail, the provisions of proposed settlements: what eligible
claimants will receive on average; what they will have to do to receive payments; what defendants are projected to pay, in the aggregate; what other activities defendants have agreed to undertake, if any; what plaintiff attorneys will
receive, if fees have been negotiated during the settlement process; and
whether any plans are made for residual or supplementary payments to other
organizations. 85
Rather than distancing themselves from class members, judges ought to invite
questions from potential class members via “800” telephone numbers, electronic mail, and more traditional correspondence. Judges presiding over large
complex class actions should have sufficient staff to monitor such communications. Information about the pendency of a class action and about its proposed
settlement ought to be available on a court Web site, and comments by potential class members ought to be solicited on that Web site. Judges also should
facilitate class members’ participation in fairness hearings.86 In mass tort class
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 497
actions, where class members frequently include represented and unrepresented parties, judges ought to consider appointing a committee of unrepresented class members to serve as spokespeople for the latter. Claimant support
groups, which often are established during the course of mass tort litigation,
can help in this regard. All of these techniques have been used successfully by
some judges in some class actions.87
Historically, judges have refrained from direct communication with represented parties in civil litigation. And some judges may fear that opening the
doors to direct communication with class members will offer new opportunities
for other actors to manipulate the litigation. But a core concern in class actions
is that class members’ interests may not be adequately represented either by
the representative parties or by class counsel. Comment from class members
would provide an additional source of information for judges who share that
concern.
G. THE ROAD TO REFORM
If judges already have the power to regulate damage class actions but not all
judges use this power in all circumstances, what stands in the way of stricter
regulation? We see three obstacles: a discourse about judging that emphasizes
calendar-clearing above all other values, a belief that court efficiency is measured in terms of dollars spent rather than dollars spent well, and a failure to
expose what occurs in ordinary damage class actions to public light.
1. Judicial Education
For more than two decades, federal and state judges have been lectured that efficient use of public and private resources compels them to settle cases quickly
and cheaply in whatever fashion “works.” Judges (and parties) have been told
that civil litigation is rightfully understood as “problem solving,” rather than
adjudication of rights and remedies.88 Public policy favors settlement over
adjudication, and views lawyers, acting on parties’ behalf, as the appropriate
people to decide when to settle, and for what. Notwithstanding concerns about
the incentives for self-dealing provided by representative litigation, much of the
guidance judges are given about presiding over class actions echoes this understanding about the role of judges and lawyers and the purposes of civil litigation.89
To promote stricter regulation of damage class actions, we need to change the
discourse about the role of judges in collective litigation. Judges need to be told
that damage class actions are not just about problem solving, that the rights of
plaintiffs and defendants are at stake, that responsibility for their outcomes lies
498 Class Action Dilemmas
not just with the class counsel and defendant but with the judge as well, and
that what is deemed acceptable in one case sends important signals about what
will be accepted in another.
Judges presiding over their first damage class action need somewhere to turn
for guidance, not just about the steps of the process, but also about the incentives for self-dealing inherent in representative litigation and the strategies
available to them for countering these incentives. Judges should be reminded
of their authority to dismiss cases and grant summary judgment, whenever appropriate. At conferences of state and federal judges, participants should be
asked to share with their colleagues not just techniques for “getting rid of
cases,” but techniques for ensuring that the settlements that they approve are
appropriate, given the law and facts, and that fee awards are proportionate to
real outcomes. Questions about how Rule 23(b)(3)’s certification criteria apply
to various types of lawsuits, at what stage of the process certification is appropriate, and whether to certify cases conditionally for settlement should be debated at these conferences. Most important, judges should be celebrated for
how they carry out their responsibilities in damage class actions, not just for
how fast or how cheaply, from the court’s perspective, they resolve these lawsuits.
2. Resources
Our recommendations for judicial management of damage class actions might
require an increase in public expenditures for the courts. Inviting greater participation in the litigation process by class members and intervenors, requiring
and assessing additional information about disbursement plans, inviting and
hearing neutral testimony on the value of purported changes in defendants’
practices and the appropriateness of class counsel’s fees and expenses, would
probably extend the litigation process and increase judicial time spent on class
action lawsuits. However, unlike traditional commentators, we are not persuaded that judicial time-savings should be a primary objective in resolving
class actions. The question ought not to be what amount of court resources was
spent managing a class action lawsuit, but rather whether court resources were
used wisely. Saving money on damage class actions by limiting judicial scrutiny
is a foolish economy that has the long-term consequence of wasting society’s
resources.
In the short run, our recommendations might also increase the private costs of
individual damage class actions. The price to settle the class actions that survive a more rigorous judicial approval process might well be higher than the
current average cost to settle damage class actions. But if plaintiff class action
attorneys had to weigh more carefully the risks of not earning anything for
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 499
nonmeritorious lawsuits, and if they and defendants had to work harder to
achieve settlements acceptable to judges, class action attorneys’ threshold for
deciding whether or not to pursue a case would rise, the ratio of appropriate to
inappropriate class action certifications would increase, and the proportion of
appropriate to inappropriate settlements would increase. To the extent that the
current costs of damage class actions reflect significant amounts of frivolous
litigation and worthless settlements—as critics allege—these costs would diminish, benefiting both defendants and consumers.
3. Opening Class Action Practice and Outcomes to Public View
Except in a few notorious cases, what happens as a result of class actions—who
gets what, with what consequences, and at what costs—is rarely a subject of
public commentary. Notwithstanding the requirement that judges approve
settlements, the key ingredients of settlements are not always recorded publicly. What class members obtained, at what cost to defendants and what benefit to class counsel, are also not always available for public reporting. Shining
more light on damage class actions would enhance judges’ incentives for regulating class actions.
To increase public information about class action outcomes, judges should require a public record of the final disposition of damage class action lawsuits,
including the total value of any monetary settlement, number of class members
who claimed and received compensation, total funds disbursed to class members, amounts of disbursements to other beneficiaries and who these beneficiaries are, and amounts paid to class counsel in fees and expenses. Courts and
legislatures should consider ways of facilitating broad public access to such
data, for example, by making electronically readable case files available through
the internet.90 Requiring comprehensive reporting of class action litigation
would provide a rich resource for policymakers concerned about class action
reform; it would also provide an unbiased information source for print and
broadcast reporters.
The lack of such information currently leaves the public with, at best, an incomplete picture of class action litigation. But the failure to monitor and systematically report the outcomes of class actions also means that judges and
lawyers cannot learn from their experiences how better to serve the public goals
of class actions. Widely published reports on the results of different sorts of
notice campaigns and different approaches to disbursement would help practitioners devise better strategies and provide more information for judges in assessing the strategies that are proposed to them. Widely published reports on
the distribution of settlement funds—to class members, other beneficiaries, or
the defendants themselves—and on fees paid to class action attorneys would
500 Class Action Dilemmas
provide data for assessing how well different class actions serve their stated
purposes.
***
Notwithstanding the controversy they arouse, history suggests that damage
class actions will remain a feature of the American civil litigation landscape.
Whether and when to permit specific types of damage class actions will be
decided by Congress and the fifty state legislatures. But it is judges—by their
willingness or unwillingness to certify cases, to approve settlements, and to
award fees—who will decide the kinds of cases that will be brought within
whatever substantive legal framework emerges. Educating judges to take responsibility for class action outcomes and providing them with more detailed
guidance as to how to evaluate settlements and assess attorney fee requests,
ensuring that courts have the resources to manage the process and scrutinize
outcomes, and opening up the class action process to public scrutiny will not
resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of the class action
controversy. But these actions could go a long way toward ensuring that the
public goals of damage class actions are not overwhelmed by the private
interests of lawyers.
NOTES
1Arthur Miller, “Of Frankenstein Monsters and Shining Knights: Myth, Reality and the Class Action
Problem,” 92 Harvard Law Review 664 (1979) at 667–68.
2See supra Chapter Two at 31–33. The Advisory Committee also considered, but did not propose
for formal review, a new provision of Rule 23 (b)(3) that would have required a preliminary hearing
on the merits prior to certification. Id., at 29 and fns. 102 and 103. That provision encountered
opposition from both plaintiff and defense bars. The thrust of our analysis of the “just ain’t worth it”
provision applies to this and other proposals for incorporating substantive review into the class
certification criteria.
3Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 417 U.S. 156 (1974).
4Thomas Willging, Laural Hooper, and Robert Niemic, Empirical Study of Class Actions in Four
Federal District Courts: Final Report to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules 171 table 24
(Washington, D.C.: Federal Judicial Center, 1996).
5Id. at 171 table 22.
6Id. at 171 tables 23–24.
7See supra Chapter Two, at 14 and fn. 18.
8See, e.g., Phyllis Ellickson, “Getting and Keeping Schools and Kids for Evaluation Studies,” Special
Issue, Journal of Community Psychology 102 (1994).
9 Some critics of the proposal to return to an opt-in regime also argue that in Rule 23(b)(3)
employment class actions, an opt-in requirement might scare off class members who fear reprisals
from a defendant.
10In a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on May 20, 1998, the then-chair of the
Civil Rules Advisory Committee, Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, observed: “The inertia of not responding
[to notice] has been identified as the cohesive force behind the viability of plaintiff class actions.
[Requiring individuals to opt in] is. . . the change to the rule that could be made to eliminate most of
the class actions or radically reduce their size.”
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 501
11 Opt-in provisions play a different role in mass tort class actions, where individual losses are
generally larger and class counsel and defendants share an interest in determining how large the
class will be and what the likely aggregate settlement value will be under a tentative settlement
agreement. Judges have approved combinations of opt-out and opt-in provisions that are tailored
to the special characteristics of mass torts.
12Rule 23(c)(1).
13Willging et al., supra note 4, at 35.
14Amchem Products, Inc., v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591 (1997).
15In re General Motors Corp. Pick-Up Truck Fuel Tank Litigation, 55 F.3d 768 (3d Cir. 1995).
16119 S. Ct. 2295 (1999).
17Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 417 U.S. 156 (1974).
18See supra, Chapter Five.
19See supra Chapter Fifteen, at 449 (Table 15.10). Costs of noticing class members of settlement
ranged into the millions of dollars.
20Willging et al., supra note 4, at 35. Not all of these cases were damage class actions, however.
From additional information appearing in Tables 30 and 31, about half were apparently 23(b)(3)
certifications, a majority of which were securities class actions. Id. at 174.
21Judith Resnik, Margaret Berger, Dennis Curtis, and Nancy Morawetz, Comments on Proposed
Changes to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23 (Oct. 30, 1996), in Administrative Office of the U.S.
Courts, 4 Working Papers of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules on Proposed Amendments to Rule
23 124-31 (1997) (hereinafter Working Papers of the Advisory Committee).
22Public Citizen lawyers have suggested that one way to broaden participation of interested parties
in settlement classes would be to require public notice of the preliminary hearing at which the
judge considers certifying the class, preliminarily evaluates the settlement, and approves the notice
plan. See Brian Wolfman and Alan Morrison, “Representing the Unrepresented in Class Actions
Seeking Monetary Relief,” 71 New York University Law Review 439, 480–85 (1996). Another
approach was adopted by Congress in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that
requires class counsel to publish notice of the pendency of the action within 20 days after a
complaint is filed. 15 U.S.C. § 78u-4.
23In the chemical factory lawsuit, those who wanted to be bound were also required to opt in. See
supra Chapter Eleven.
24 See, e.g., E. Donald Elliott, Summary of Key Points: Testimony Before the Subcommittee on
Administrative Oversight and the Courts of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Concerning S.
353, the Class Action Fairness Act of 1999 (May 4, 1999) (on file with the authors); Stephen
Morrison, Statement Before the Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts of the
Senate Committee on the Judiciary, S. 353: the Class Action Fairness Act of 1999 (May 4, 1999) (on
file with the authors).
25Supreme Tribe of Ben-Hur v. Cauble, 255 U.S. 356 (1921). For a discussion of diversity jurisdiction
in the context of class actions and other dispersed litigation, see Thomas Rowe and Kenneth Sibley,
“Beyond Diversity: Federal Multiparty, Multiforum Jurisdiction,” 135 University of Pennsylvania
Law Review 7 (1986).
26This interpretation of the application of the jurisdictional threshold to class actions dates back to
the period before the adoption of the 1966 amendments to Rule 23. After 1966, some proponents of
damage class actions argued that the jurisdictional requirement could be met by aggregating
individual class members’ claims. The Supreme Court rejected this interpretation first in Snyder v.
Harris, 394 U.S. 332 (1969), and then again in Zahn v. International Paper Co., 414 U.S. 291 (1973).
At the time when Zahn was decided, the jurisdictional threshold was $10,000.
Since 1990, the applicability of Snyder and Zahn has been questioned in the light of the supplemental jurisdiction provision of the Judicial Improvements Act of 1990, 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a). Some
circuits have held that the amendment to § 1367 effectively overruled Zahn; others disagree. See,
e.g., Daniels v. Philip Morris Companies, 18 F. Supp. 2d 1110 (S.D. Cal. 1998).
27Class Action Fairness Act of 1999, S. 353, 106th Cong., 1st Sess. (1999). H.R. 1875, 106th Cong., 1st
Sess. (1999) passed the House in 1999. Similar bills introduced in the 105th Congress did not con-
502 Class Action Dilemmas
tain the multistate restriction. See, e.g., Class Action Jurisdiction Act of 1998, H.R. 3789, 105th Cong.,
2d Sess. (1998).
28See, e.g., Eleanor Acheson, Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Statement to
the Courts Subcommittee on S.B. 353 (May 4, 1999) (on file with the authors).
29See, e.g., John Frank, Statement to Courts Subcommittee on S.B. 353 (May 4, 1999) (on file with
the authors).
30The Anti-Injunction Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2283, prohibits federal courts from enjoining state court
action, with certain exceptions specified by statute and case law. See Diane Wood, “Fine-Tuning
Judicial Federalism: A Proposal for Reform of the Anti-Injunction Act,” 1990 Brigham Young
University Law Review 289. Legal doctrine pertaining to the preclusive effects of substantive legal
decisions varies across jurisdictions. See Stephen Burbank, “Interjurisdictional Preclusion, Full
Faith and Credit and Federal Common Law: A General Approach,” 71 Cornell Law Review 733
(1986).
31Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co. v. Epstein, 516 U.S. 367 (1996) (holding that a settlement of a
securities class action in the state court of Delaware must be given full faith and credit, even though
some of the claims settled were subject to exclusive federal court jurisdiction). But see Epstein v.
MCA, 156 F.3d 1235 (9th Cir. 1997), withdrawn on rehearing, 179 F.3d 641 (9th Cir. 1999).
3228 U.S.C. § 1407.
33The transferee judge can try cases that were filed in her district court. Hence, once the MDL has
issued a transfer order, attorneys seeking an aggregative disposition may file claims in that court,
knowing that, under the MDL panel’s order, they will automatically be assigned to the transferee
judge. In the past, some district court judges have claimed authority to try other cases as well. For
example, Judge Carl Rubin, sitting in the Southern District of Ohio, consolidated for trial all
Bendectin cases filed in the Northern and Southern Districts, on the rationale that (since these were
diversity cases) Ohio state law would apply to all. Judge Rubin also allowed attorneys who had filed
cases outside these districts to voluntarily join the consolidated trial. See Michael Green, Bendectin
and Birth Defects: The Challenges of Mass Toxic Substances Litigation 195 (New York: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1996). In Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg, Weiss, Bershad, Hynes and Lerach, 523 U.S. 26
(1998), the U.S. Supreme Court held that transferee judges must return all unsettled cases filed
outside the transferee judge’s district to their original jurisdictions for trial.
34 A provision amending 28 U.S.C. §1407 to allow MDL transferee judges to decide liability and
punitive damages, and remand cases in which defendants were held liable to the district court in
which they were filed for determination of damages, has been included in some versions of the
“multiparty multiforum” bills that have been introduced in Congress over the past ten years. See,
e.g., Multiparty Multiforum Jurisdiction Act of 1993, H.R. 1100, 103d Cong., 1st Sess. (1993). Under
this bill, choice of law was to be determined by the transferee judge. Versions of this bill passed the
House in 1989, 1991, and 1998. In 1999, the House of Representatives passed a bill that broadens the
transferee judges’ authority to include trial. H.R. 2112, 106th Cong., 1st Sess. (1999).
35 See Mark Weber, “The Federal Civil Rules Amendments of 1992 and Complex Litigation: A
Comment on Transsubstantivity and Special Rules for Large and Small Federal Cases,” 14 Review of
Litigation 113 (1994).
36See supra note 34.
37See, e.g., American Bar Association, Commission on Mass Torts (1990); American Law Institute,
Complex Litigation: Statutory Recommendations and Analysis (Philadelphia, Pa.: American Law
Institute, 1994); Rowe and Sibley, supra note 25; William Schwarzer, Alan Hirsch, and Edward
Sussman, “A Proposal to Amend the Multidistrict Litigation Statute to Permit Discovery
Coordination of Large-Scale Litigation Pending in State and Federal Courts,” 73 Texas Law Review
1529 (1995); Wood, “Fine-Tuning Judicial Federalism,” supra note 30. The ALI’s 1990s project was
preceded by a much earlier proposal to create a new federal jurisdiction for litigation involving
dispersed parties. See American Law Institute, Study of the Division of Jurisdiction Between State
and Federal Courts (1969). Rowe and Sibley provide a historical overview of proposals relating to
multiforum litigation. Rowe and Sibley, supra note 25, at 11–14. Judge Schwarzer et al.’s proposal
would authorize consolidation of state and federal cases for pretrial purposes only. Judge Wood’s
proposal would broaden federal court authority to enjoin state court proceedings. Many of these
efforts were driven by concern about increasing numbers of mass tort cases, although not all of the
proposals were limited to mass torts.
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 503
38Ralph Lancaster and Catherine Connors, “Creation of a National Disaster Court: A Response to
Judicial Federalism in Action,” 78 Virginia Law Review 1753 (1992).
39See, e.g., In re American Medical Systems, Inc., 75 F.3d 1069 (6th Cir. 1996) (reversing certification
of nationwide state law–based class action on mandamus, holding that “variations in state law may
swamp any common issues and defeat predominance”); Osborne v. Suburu of America, Inc., 198
Cal. App. 3d 646 (1988) (affirming denial of class certification, on the grounds that “the sheer
magnitude of the task of construing the various laws will compel a court not to certify [a] multistate
class”).
40This was a central concern of the American Law Institute project, supra note 37. For a discussion
of the difficulty of the task and the complexity of the ALI’s approach, see Linda Mullenix,
“Unfinished Symphony: The Complex Litigation Project Rests,” 54 Louisiana Law Review 977
(1994).
41See supra Chapter Two.
42Amchem Products, Inc. v Windsor, 521 U.S. 591 (1997); Ortiz v. Fibreboard, Inc., 119 S. Ct. 2295
(1999).
43See, e.g., Deborah Hensler and Mark Peterson, “Understanding Mass Personal Injury Litigation: A
Socio-Legal Analysis,” 59 Brooklyn Law Review 961 (1993).
44See supra Chapter Three, at 104–05.
45See supra Chapter Two, at fn. 111.
46See supra Chapter Three, at 97.
47Cotton v. Hinton, 559 F.2d 1326 (5th Cir. 1977); Grunin v. International House of Pancakes, 513
F.2d 114 (8th Cir. 1975).
48To provide clearer and more consistent guidance to judges, Judge William Schwarzer proposed
an amendment to Rule 23(e) calling for the judge to consider and make findings with respect to 11
factors, including class definition, treatment of class members with possibly diverse interests, optout rights, attorney fees, benefits to class members, and costs to defendants. William Schwarzer,
“Settlement of Mass Tort Class Actions: Order Out of Chaos,” 80 Cornell Law Review 87 (1995).
Judge Schwarzer’s proposal was put forward in the context of the debate over certifying mass tort
class actions.
49Manual for Complex Litigation 237, 239 (3d ed. 1995).
50Id.
51Evans v. Jeff D., 475 U.S. 717 (1986).
52See supra Chapter Thirteen, at 357–60.
53See supra Chapter Six, at 181–82.
54See supra Chapter Eight, at 218.
55See supra Chapter Six, at 181–82.
56See supra Chapter Seven, at 241–42.
57 The Manual for Complex Litigation advises judges to consider comparisons of the proposed
settlement amount with the present value of the damages plaintiffs would likely recover if
successful, appropriately discounted for the risk of not prevailing, and suggests that expert
testimony may be helpful in this analysis. Id. at 238.
58Boeing Co. v. Van Gemert, 444 U.S. 472 (1980).
59See supra Chapter Fifteen, at Table 15.13.
60See supra, Chapter Ten, at 282–83.
61 See supra Chapter Three, at 82–84.
62See supra Chapter Five, at 163–67.
63See supra Chapter Seven, at 199.
64 In the contact lens pricing litigation, class counsel and defendants agreed not to release
information on the amount of cash and coupons collected by class members. See supra Chapter
Five. In the credit life insurance litigation, the judge did not even require the parties to tell him how
504 Class Action Dilemmas
much money was to be disbursed and no reporting of disbursements was required; we obtained the
information with the defendant’s cooperation. See supra Chapter Nine.
65The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), which comprises both attorneys who
bring individual lawsuits and consumer class action attorneys, has proposed that class counsel
should submit to the court and all counsel of record detailed information about redemption rates
and coupon transfers during the entire life of the coupon, so as to create an informational base for
assessing the circumstances in which coupons “work.” See National Association of Consumer
Advocates, “Standards and Guidelines for Litigating and Settling Consumer Class Actions,” 176
F.R.D. 375 (1997) (hereinafter NACA, “Standards”).
66See supra Chapter Three, at 76–78.
67Attorney fees based on a percentage of the amount of damages and prejudgment interest actually
paid to the class are required under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Pub. L. No.
104-67, 109 Stat. 737 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 15 U.S.C. (Supp. II 1996)).
68Boeing Co. v. Van Gemert, 444 U.S. 472 (1980).
69See supra Chapter Thirteen, at 359.
70See, e.g. Duhaime v. John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., 989 F. Supp. 375 (D. Mass. 1997)
(court awarded fee requested provisionally, ordered partial payment immediately and reserved
balance for payment in full or to be adjusted in light of the actual funds disbursed); Bowling v.
Pfizer, 102 F.3d 777 (6th Cir. 1996) (rehearing denied) (upholding district court fee award of 10
percent of the amount paid into the common fund to date, plus up to 10 percent of annual
payments to be paid into one of the funds established by the settlement over a period of ten years).
71NACA has proposed limiting cy pres payments to organizations that have some connection to
“the interests the underlying litigation sought to protect.” NACA, “Standards,” supra note 65, at 393.
72See supra Chapter Eight, at Table 8.2.
73See supra Chapter Nine, at 238–39.
74Sometimes termed a “clear sailing” agreement. See, e.g., Weinberger v. Great Northern Nekoosa
Corp., 925 F.2d 518 (1st Cir. 1991).
75Evans v. Jeff D., 475 U.S. 717 (1985).
76See, e.g., Weinberger v. Great Northern Nekoosa Corp., 925 F.2d 518 (holding that “clear sailing
agreements” must receive close judicial scrutiny).
77“Court Awarded Attorney Fees Report of the Third Circuit Task Force,” 108 F.R.D. 237, 255 (1985).
78NACA, “Standards,” supra note 65, at 397.
79 NACA has proposed that class counsel “consider notifying persons and groups who have an
interest in the proceedings that a tentative settlement has been reached and that a preliminary
hearing will be scheduled to consider the fairness and adequacy of the settlement.” Id. at 386.
80See supra Chapter Seven, at 197–205.
81See, e.g., In re “Agent Orange” Product Liability Litigation, 818 F.2d 216 (2d Cir. 1987), cert. denied,
484 U.S. 926 (1997) (holding that fee-sharing agreements need to be disclosed to the judge since
“only by reviewing the agreement prospectively will the district courts be able to prevent potential
conflicts from arising”). Id. at 226.
82An interesting question with regard to public interest lawyer-intervenors is whether and how to
reward them when their intervention results in the collapse of a class action settlement and lawsuit.
If their activities helped a judge decide that certification and settlement were inappropriate, do they
deserve fees? If so, who should pay them? The fact that fees are currently available to intervenors
only if a settlement is ultimately approved by a judge has the unfortunate consequence of drawing
intervenors into the “triangle of interests” that promotes settlement when it is not in class
members’ or society’s best interests.
83Manual for Complex Litigation at 238–39.
84Judge Jack B. Weinstein, who presided over the Agent Orange mass tort class action, the second
asbestos Manville Trust reorganization, DES product liability litigation, and other large-scale
litigation, has written about how judges might relate to individual plaintiffs in aggregative litigation.
See Jack B. Weinstein, Individual Justice in Mass Tort Litigation: The Effect of Class Actions,
Consolidations, and Other Multiparty Devices (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1995).
Achieving the Objectives of Rule 23(b)(3) Class Actions 505
See also Judith Resnik et al., “Individuals Within the Aggregate: Relationships, Representation, and
Fees,” 71 New York University Law Review 296, 381–401 (1996).
85Under the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, notice of a proposed
settlement must include information on the aggregate and average amount proposed to be
distributed to class members; the amount of fees and expenses class counsel will seek, in total and
on average per claimant; and a brief statement explaining the reasons why the parties are proposing
the settlement. The NACA Guidelines propose that notices include information about how to
determine whether one is a member of the class, the size of the class, the total amount “to be
granted” to the class, individual shares or estimates thereof, the total amount of attorney fees, the
basis for their calculation and their source, and what will happen to any unclaimed funds. NACA,
“Standards,” supra note 65, at 400.
86Recall that in the chemical factory class action, fairness hearings were held in the New Orleans
Superdome! See supra Chapter Twelve. In the Agent Orange class action, Judge Jack B. Weinstein
held fairness hearings in Brooklyn, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, and San Francisco. See Peter Schuck,
Agent Orange on Trial: Mass Toxic Disasters in the Courts 173 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1987).
87For example, in the silicone breast implant class action, claimants and lawyers had access to
Websites and “800” telephone numbers to obtain information about the progress of the litigation
and claim submission. Judge Samuel C. Pointer appointed a silicone breast implant claimant
advocate to the plaintiffs’ steering committee.
88On federal judges’ incentives to expedite resolution of civil cases, see James Kakalik et al., Just,
Speedy, and Inexpensive? An Evaluation of Judicial Case Management Under the Civil Justice Reform
Act (Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND, 1996).
89See supra Chapter Three, at 91.
90 Some legislatures and courts have required collection and publication of litigation data,
including settlement. The Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 established a national data
bank of information on judgments and settlements paid by businesses and professional
corporations in medical malpractice litigation. 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7e. Under California law, the state
Judicial Council is charged with providing for the uniform entry, storage, and retrieval of court data
relating to civil cases, including nature and amount of settlement. Cal. Govt. Code § 68513. In the
Northern District of California, under Local Rule 23-2, securities class action attorneys are required
to post documents filed in connection with private securities litigation claims at a designated
internet site.